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Been neglecting this blog to work on a new one. That one is much more specific as it’s about me schooling my girls at home, so if you want the link, just hit me up. I’m trying to remain anonymous on that one, though, so if you hop on over, just dont address me or the girls by name, kplzthnx! 😀

I think that between the FlyLady, reading all the homeschooling mom blogs and reading organizing junkie blogs, things are finally beginning to sink in. I decided I have to stop thinking and talking about what I want to do and JUST DO IT. (Wow, what a concept. :P)

To that end, I put together my list of 2012 resolutions, and I started using a daily To-Do List to dump my brain and check off what I’m actually accomplishing.

The Daily Docket (pic is linked) is great,

but I’ve been using The Pocket Docket:

Either one works if you’re a list person. But, then I realized that even with my lovely Home Management Binder (still a work-in-progress), I’d have to keep printing multiple copies of these dockets and shoving them into my binder only to throw them away by the end of the yr.

I didnt want to do that.

So, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a planner! =O I just havent done that in yrs. Not since I was in college and definitely not after discovering Google Calendar! 😛 But, even though I put all of my appointments on Google Calendar, I dont use the Task function for my To-Do’s. Plus, I dont want to have to always access my phone or computer for the next item on the list. So I put my foot down (against myself) and decided to purchase this:

I’m hoping it’ll be worth it. Even if for just the daily to-do lists and the stickers. 😛 But, honestly, I hope I love it because then I’ll get one every yr and not have to print off list after list or even use notepad after notepad, post-it after post-it (though post-its work wonderfully for my husband and I’m not knocking them!), you get the idea. And I can use my Home Management Notebook for other things, like menu planning. I’m going to get very serious about that this yr. If for no other reason than to practice for the day when we wont be living with my inlaws (really crossing my fingers here), and I cant rely on my MIL for dinner every night. Anyways, I should be taking care of breakfast and lunch, so I’ll start there. I want to provide my husband a nutritious meal to take with him to work. Actually, a few meals. He doesnt eat breakfast at home, and he works 12 hr shifts most days, so he really needs breakfast, lunch and a satiating snack. Once I get that down, I can focus on dinners and eventually meals with both my kids. To that end, aside from the numerous cookbooks and foodie sites I peruse, I went with the FlyLady’s recommendation and bought this:

I had had a sample on my Nook, but again decided to bite the bullet and just BUY IT! I need to start somewhere and it might as well be there. Luckily I have a wonderful Mother’s Helper with me these first few months with Baby Ruth here and she is a great cook who can help me learn some good Chines cooking as well as assist me in trying Western Recipes. (Thanks, T!) I am trying to take advantage of this time to learn to cook, and also to eat better and stay healthy as I breastfeed and attempt to get down to a healthier weight. My husband needs to get healthier, too. And we need to save money so I’d rather we stop buying when I can make stuff. Cant wait to bake bread! 😀

Ok, on to my goals for this yr. Here’s my list:

1. SPIRITUAL GOALS:

a) Word – Finish last yr’s BSF study on Isaiah by March and finish the Acts/Epistles study from several yrs ago (get notes from friends)

b) Worship – Minimum 10mins/day

c) Prayer – Minimum 10mins/day (May start keeping a journal again – I have a moleskin.)

2. FAMILY GOALS:

a) Homeschool Jelly Bean starting in March (17mths old) and keep new blog on it

Actually, speaking of sickness, I was in the hospital for a few days last wk because I had a flu bug that turned into pneumonia! I’ve never had pneumonia, so I didnt recognize the symptoms. Honestly I wasnt even coughing much at all til I got to the hospital a few days after my illness began. I just had fever after fever after fever. It was AWFUL. I’m so so blessed to be living with my in-laws. They were able to take care of my Jelly Bean downstairs while I suffered upstairs. I was out of work for 3 days before I went into the hospital for another 4 days and then rested at home on antibiotics another 5 days. Crazy. So I started my Maternity Leave yesterday – two weeks earlier than originally planned. Not that I’m complaining, but it does mean my pay will end earlier. I really hate the Maternity Leave system in the US.

I am pretty much done with church ministry as well. It turned out I’d changed my preaching schedule so that my last message fell on Oct 30, instead of the wknd after. Thank goodness I did! I didnt know I’d be spending the weekend after in the hospital! But that wasnt the original reason why I’d changed the date. I changed it because Tom and I had planned to go to Penn State to visit Maggie and we could only get a hotel for that wknd. In the end, we didnt make it anyway. (Sidenote – this is the 2nd time we’ve tried to go to PA and not made it. First time was the wknd that Hurricane Irene hit. I was supposed to attend a Precept Ministries Bible Study training for the first time. Should I be concerned about this coincidence?)

Anyway, I’m much better now. I went to get a wonderful prenatal massage today. I want to try to go at least once more before I give birth in a month. It always feels so good! My husband is very encouraging to me in this. 🙂

Yes, the song is VERY cheesy, but it’s catchy, too. I was watching episode after episode of FlyLadyTV on YouTube. It always opens with that theme song. Some of the videos are clipped, though, which is a shame because she really has very encouraging things to say. The clipart graphics are cute, too.

I started my Control Journal/Home Management Binder – in a real binder! I bought dividers and everything. I’m really excited. I’m filling in the Important Documents section because that’s the easiest. I’ve had the copies in a plastic bin. Most of our important documents are in a safe deposit box, but these are either the copies or the papers that havent made it to the box yet. I feel much better knowing they’re in the binder now. I told my husband to take note of it so that in case of an emergency he would grab the binder. I enclosed it in a FlyLady purple Office-in-a-Bag. I chose the purple one on purpose since that’s the FlyLady’s signature color. But she has other colors as well. In addition, I purchased her calendar stickers for my section on Daily Routines because I know I’ll print a calendar for there. I’d rather have a printed calendar for now than purchase the FlyLady Calendar because I want to make sure I use it before I make another purchase. Once our kids are older and in school, maybe I’ll start purchasing her calendar because we can use it as a family. I also downloaded samples of her books and one more book on cooking onto my NOOK for inspiration. If I like them then I’ll buy them.

I am actually DYING to shine my sink! 😛 I havent done so because I’m not sure I have the right cleaners yet. Since I havent deep cleaned the sink in the last 1+ yr we’ve lived with my in-laws, I’m not sure I can dive right in. Still, I’m itching to try it.

On Tuesday when my mom came over to babysit my daughter, I started to tell her about FlyLady and the Control Journal. I spoke of the importance of routines and Zone Cleaning, as well as keeping everything in one place. My mom admitted that she is a SHE and that she is constantly leaving her cleaning to the last minute. In addition, I showed her my Holiday Control Journal and she was in awe that I was trying to follow the FlyLady system. I told her very simply that I HAD to. I’m a relatively new wife who still doesnt know how to properly cook or clean. And I’m a new mom who has babies to feed and raise. For my own peace of mind, I need a system! I told my mom that we’re not SHEs because we’re lazy, but because without having a system to organize our time, we end up going crazy and not wanting to do anything! My mom could only nod in agreement. That made me happy. I forwarded her the FlyLady’s website and instructions on building her own Home Management binder. When she left, I realized I’m becoming a FlyLady evangelist! 😛 It felt really good to share something so helpful to my mom because keeping the house in order and cooking are inevitable parts of home life for all moms. We’ll see if she actually puts it all into practice.

Can I just say I’ve been wanting to blog for days and days, but I’m just so EXHAUSTED from work when I get home that I cant do anything but sit and play with my daughter, feed her and put her to bed? I’m at work late everyday just to get grading done before I return home. I’m super STRESSED about the Quality Review my school’s going through in two weeks. Not to mention the MOUNTAIN of paperwork and grading that I’m buried beneath. I just keep chanting this mantra to myself: “Four more weeks.” In four more weeks I’ll be done teaching and the teacher I’m covering for will have returned. Then I have a few days just to finish up any grading and get my maternity leave paperwork in order. I’m 33 weeks pregnant tomorrow. The countdown to labor is coming quickly.

A few years ago, I heard the name “FLY Lady” on an online forum I belong to. One of the founders of the forum is married and blogs about her cooking. I think I was recently engaged at the time and had asked her how she keeps everything organized. Between working, housework, cooking and the forum, among other commitments, I was feeling very overwhelmed about getting married and how well I would be able to balance everything. In fact, I’m still having a hard time. I looked over the website for a few seconds after she’d mentioned it, but then closed out of it and never went back… until a few weeks ago.

You may or may not have inferred from my previous entries that although I’ve only been married just over 2 yrs, my husband and I are already on our 2nd child. Daughter #1 (Jelly Bean) will be 1 yr old in exactly a week from today; daughter #2 (Baby Ruth) is expected this December. In addition to being a wife and new mom, I’m also still working as a full-time public school teacher and as a part-time (unpaid) pastor. (I preach 2x/month, lead cell group Bible Study 2x/month, and lead worship 1x/month.) I also run my IGNITE! Prayer Ministry meetings on Thursdays and lead worship there.

I used to take seminary courses and had to drop that when I realized I couldnt spend every waking moment that I was not taking care of my daughter doing homework for my class! >_< It was exhausting. Not to mention that my baby was 3 months and I’d had no sleep since she was born. By the end of this yr, I’ll also be taking leave from my job until next Sept. And I’ll be stepping down from my pastorate position at church and possibly switching to my husband’s church where I was ordained. I’ll be glad to cut some of my commitments since I really need to focus on my girls and building the IGNITE! ministry. I also have something else up my sleeve that I’m purposely keeping off this blog. It’s big – really big. And I’m so excited about it!! 😀

Once it hit me that summer was just a few short weeks of giving way to the start of the new school year, I felt very motivated to get my act together and start a routine. I’d returned to work last March once my baby was turning 6months, and I was STILL sleep-deprived and unmotivated to teach. I had no plan for managing the workload of grading HW, exams and projects during the workday so that I could be free to care for my daughter once I got home. Thankfully, God’s grace worked it out so my principal told me to just take it easy and not focus exclusively on Chinese language lessons. Since I could do more cultural lessons, it cut down my workload immensely. I just took all of my free periods to cram in as much grading as possible and I refused to take as much late HW as in the past. But once I got home I was so exhausted. A full day of work and then having to care for my Jelly Bean, and THEN finding out I was pregnant AGAIN! O___O! No wonder I was so tired…

This time, knowing I’d be facing even more grading and paperwork since I’m teaching ELA, I HAD to have some sort of plan. I remembered the FLY Lady site and decided to go pay her a visit. Best decision I made! I do think the site needs a major overhaul because it’s very packed and difficult to navigate, but once I found the BabySteps and signed up for the daily emails, I was FLYing high! (Hehe, pun intended.)

Thanks to the FLY Lady, my bathroom sink is shinier than it’s been in a while. (I know she wants us to start with the kitchen sink, but I have no problems there. It was my BATHROOM sink that was driving me crazy.) I also lay out my clothes each night, and I discovered a few areas that the FLY Lady would call a HotSpot and cleared most of the stuff out. In addition, my husband has helped in the area of refilling my water bottle (not hers, but a generic one), and cutting fruit for me each night and keeping them cold for me in the fridge. In the morning I can just take both out of the fridge and toss into my tote bag. (Forgot to do that this morning, though! D’oh!) My husband is actually better at routines than I am. He’s a therapist and has said to me repeatedly that I should have some sort of night routine to wind down and reduce my stress. (Did I mention how amazing my husband is and how I want to re-marry him over and over?) I read all kinds of blogs about being organized and about how homeschooling moms keep their houses tidy, meals planned and children educated all while keeping sane. So clearly it’s not impossible. I just havent sat down to think how I myself would get started. And to be honest, I dont have to do everything myself yet. We live with my in-laws in THEIR house, so there are areas I never touch, like cooking and laundry. (Every wife in the world hates me now.) Not to mention that I’m 7 months pregnant, so I am ‘not allowed’ to do a lot of these domestic chores. Working full-time is enough stress on my body; I need to focus on caring for myself. [Wow, I’ve really got it made. Why am I still stressed? Oh yea – so many other commitments! -__- ]

Anyway, I guess I’m saying that I’ve found my start at getting more organized and less flustered about how our part of the house looks. I’m truly on my way to becoming a FLY Baby. Thanks FLY Lady!

Cant believe school starts tomorrow. There was so much to get done in the classroom. The sub that had taken over the last 3 months basically left the class TRASHED! >_< So I had to clean up last yr’s mess and then get prepared for this yr. Thank goodness for a great sister and a wonderful friend who came to help. At 6mths pregnant, it was exhausting enough for me to run up and down the school to this meeting and that; to this office and that; to move my stuff from the first floor office to the 2nd floor classroom. The others helped move furniture and clear bulletin boards. I was so sore from the waist down last night, I had to lay on the couch while I tried to play with my Jelly Bean! -__-

Now my classroom looks great. There’s still stuff to be set up, but that’s ok. The bulk of the foot work is done. And the board looks great with my assignments written, the class program posted, and the other goodies displayed. I’ll take a picture tomorrow morning before it’s all ruined. 😛

Right now I’m posting the first marking period’s worth of HW assignments on our new web-based gradebook. It will make things so much simpler. I really like it. And since I’m plugging in the HW assignments now, it will keep me on schedule. Love it!

Ok, wish me luck tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go smoothly, so that by the time I head over to IGNITE!, I’ll be ready to joyfully lead worship. 😀

I’m going to try to be more faithful to maintaining this blog as I’m finding it very helpful in gathering my scattered thoughts and helping me to organize my day’s tasks.

Today I preached the sermon I spoke about yesterday. Thank goodness it went well. My DH will step in to preach for me in October, which means I’ve only got one day in November to preach before I’m done. In between, I’m leading the cell group Bible Studies, but those are very low stress for me.

It’s very late, but we came home late from visiting with my daughter’s Kai-ma and Kai-ye in NJ. I wanted to laminate the poems I’m posting in the classroom this yr, but I’ll work on it tomorrow. I also have a Reading Response template that I’m designing for my classes and I hope to be done with it tomorrow. I think I’m pretty much as set as I can be for the first wk of school. I feel the anxiety moving away from my heart and it’s a very good feeling! 😀

I need to work on the project proposal, but I’m not stressing it. I want it to be excellent, which means I cant rush it. I will give myself the deadline of finishing by the end of the month before work gets too chaotic and my pregnancy is too advanced. Then I will pass it to my lawyer friend to look over.

So tomorrow’s (really today’s) tasks are:

Laminate poems

Finish Reading Response template

REST & do something fun before work starts on Tuesday! (After all, it IS Labor Day!)

Hm, maybe I shouldnt neglect this blog so much! 😛 Since I wrote the last post, I’ve been much more productive. Writing out my distracted thoughts really helps me to focus.

Today, my husband was scheduled to do workshops at a conference. That meant I would be helping him all day and not be at home where I could work on my sermon prep for tomorrow. I figured – as crazy and impossible as it sounds – that I would try to work on my sermon WHILE I was helping him do powerpoint with his workshop. Powerpoint is fine when it’s slide by slide, but my husband’s .ppt was LINE BY LINE. So, I did really need to pay attention. Not to mention that I like to try to throw in something helpful now and again.

Well, to my astonishment, I got half the sermon done during his morning session and the other half done in his afternoon session, all the while working the .ppt and listening to the conversation! =O I know that this is all due to God’s grace in my life. Seriously. When 2011 began, I was a new mom with a 3-mth old baby and much sleep-deprivation under my belt. I was also taking a seminary course. (Ended up dropping it after 5 wks because I was spending every minute not with the baby trying to do tons of reading and HW. T__T) I knew that I had no strength and very limited ability to function, much less write a coherent message for my tiny flock on Sunday! I prayed a very simple, yet desperate prayer to the Holy Spirit and asked Him/Her to take over and just give me the words to say. I have to give credit where it’s due and say that the Spirit has come through EVERY SINGLE TIME! This whole yr has been focused on a study of the Holy Spirit – first through Spiritual Gifts and now through a systematic study of the book of Acts. I really dont know how I made it this far, except to say it was all God! My wonderful husband also steps in to preach in my place when I get too busy to deal. He came in to preach 4 times when I had to return to work in March so that I could focus on readjusting to my early work schedule and all the lesson preparation that needed to get done. And now that I’m returning to work on Tuesday, I’ve scheduled in only one preaching session this month (tomorrow) and then my husband will come in October to preach for me. I’ll take over again in November and then I’m on Maternity Leave! (I’m still leading cell group Bible Study in between preaching, but at least that’s ‘easier’ for me than prepping a sermon.) God is good.

Right now, I’ve still got the project proposal to work on, but I’ve had to put it on hold to get ready for the new school yr – particularly since I’m teaching a subject I’ve never taught – 8th grade ELA. The Chinese program is cut, so I’m subbing in for another teacher who’s on maternity leave until she returns at the end of Nov. Amazingly, I think I’ve been less stressed and more prepared to teach this class than I have been about teaching my own Chinese classes! =O I also have less classes, (3, as opposed to the 7, 8 or 9 I usually get with Chinese), and I can use English all the time without any guilt! 😛

I’m almost done with the logistics and paperwork that need planning before going in to see what my schedule is like on Tuesday. I’ve got a spiffy new binder to hold all my daily lesson plans and transparencies, my calendar and student contact info, etc. In the past I’d put the papers together and get them bound like a portfolio at Staples, but this yr I felt I should use a binder again, (it’s been ages), so that I can add or re-arrange my work as necessary. Plus, I love binders and printing out cute/funny graphics to go with the different sections. 😛

It’s late and I need to sleep, but I feel good about this. Fittingly, part of my sermon tomorrow is on priorities, and my husband’s workshop today was addressing the issues of stress and worry. Somehow this blog is becoming therapeutic for me instead of a guilty chore. I can feel my worry and stress melting away as I write this post. And my priorities are more in order than ever! Thank you, Lord! 😀

Sigh. This always happens. It’s the weekend before the start of the new school yr and here I am again… again.

I want to get things organized so I can hit the ground running on the first day. Unfortunately, several things keep me backed up:

The fact that the school wouldnt let me in to clean the room before Tuesday! >_<

The inability to complete one task before starting another.

The fatigue of being 6mths pregnant and having an 11-mth old to care for.

The need to prep sermons and Bible Studies each wk for church.

Planning for and leading worship at IGNITE! for the month of Sept.

The urgency to finish the proposal I’m working on for a huge project.

The incessant emails to respond to.

The desire to free my mind of ‘work’ by reading other blogs, magazines and books that have been long-neglected.

Does housework even make this list?

So here I am, trying to work on 3 things at once:

the project proposal (should’ve been done yesterday)

my sermon for Sunday (needs to be done by tonight since DH & I are going to a conference tomorrow)

my final preparations for the school yr (at least what can be done now)

this blog entry.

Wait, that’s four things. Just by needing a break and seeing this oft-neglected blog, I added a task to my list by writing this entry. There’ll be no sense of accomplishment once I’m done. I have to go back to the first 3 items, which are supposed to be my priority and just GET THEM DONE!

I realize how much I need to get into a better routine. And this permeates everything. I need to prioritize my tasks and then figure out the best way to complete them. Does it have to be this difficult? Ironically – or perhaps, fittingly – my message on Sunday is to be partially on Priorities. Yes, God does have a sense of humor. Maybe I should simply talk about this – my inability to order my life because I cant prioritize! -__-

I read so many creative blogs from other moms who do crafts and are super-organized, they look lovely and make meals from scratch. It’s not as nauseating to me as I thought it would be. It’s attractive. I want to have a nice home, I want to eat meals I cook from scratch (or near to), and I want to raise crafty kids. Not that this should be my standard for mommy-hood. It’s just always in my face. I feel like I’m not good at anything ‘domestic’ sometimes. I cant cook. I neglect to clean, not because I’m a slob, but because my other work distracts me to the point I dont realize I need to clean! T__T And I am definitely tired.

Physically – going on almost a yr of sleep deprivation with my first child and now about to go into another yr with my second.

Mentally – way too much work between teaching full-time, ministering at church, taking care of my baby, being mindful of caring for others and working on this project. Did I mention that I had to quit seminary school?

Spiritually/Emotionally – I need to be cared for, but I’m usually doing the caring. Not that my husband isnt there for me because he is. I’m talking about as I minister to others, the other leaders and I (also mostly mommies) neglect our own self-care. I need to change that when I return from maternity leave. Then I’ll be on leave from work and have stepped down from pastoring at church, so that only leaves IGNITE! as my main focus in addition to the project I’m working on.

One of the things I need to do for myself for this school yr is make sure I’m eating well. There’s only crap food to be found near the school (and IN the school), so I have to try to be diligent to plan at home. Lots of fruit, veggies, nuts, water and my vitamins to supplement the regular meals – esp when I have no choice but to go get the crap food.

Action Plan:

Vitamins – put 2-days worth in the blue container my husband gave me.

Water – arrange for a case of water to be brought to school by my husband

Breakfast – try to eat something at home as much as possible (6:15am, yikes!) Some stuff we already have:

breakfast burritos

waffles (+ frozen fruit + syrup)

bagels (+ PB&J)

bread (+ butter & jam)

cereal (+ frozen fruit)

fruit – yes I should add a fruit each day to keep me full til lunch

Lunch – some microwaveable dishes. Dont like the sodium content, but the portion-size is good and it keeps me from having to run to the store when I can be grading papers

Snacks – Fruit/Veggies/Nuts: clean, cut and bag the wk in advance to be tossed into my bag in the morning

Hm, I was wrong when I said I wouldnt feel accomplished after writing this blog. I do. I have a plan now and I just need to execute it. Yay.

Didnt do too much resting this past wk – or today, for that matter. Overall, it was a suck-ass wk for me. I cant even believe the crap that happened even though it started so nicely with the celebration of my birthday. Having my laptop stolen was bad enough, but then my students drew me over the edge with their incessant whining. -__- I’m not kidding. Can anyone say MANIPULATION? Tears are like blackmail and they know it. I dont want that class to ever speak to me again.

Oh yea – rest. So, I have been trying to get myself more organized this yr so that I can spend more time doing the things I NEED to do – rest, as well as the things I want to do. I even downloaded a free e-book from some other blog I cant remember, but the site is called Inspired to Action. It’s really for busy moms, but I found it helpful, too, even if it is a bit simplistic. I plan to look it over again. She gives nice charts and handouts to help you start organizing your morning routine. I dont know if I really have the motivation to do it, but honestly I feel like it’s what I should’ve been doing for the past x-number of yrs now. And if I dont make it a habit soon, it’ll be worse once I start having kids.

I’ve been keeping up so far with half of my New Yr’s Resolutions. The ones that have to do with reading anyway. 😛 And I love how God even ties them in with what I need to speak on or mention at church. I’m a bit behind on My Utmost for His Highest, but since that’s a daily devo, I dont mind skipping a few days. They arent consecutive in theme or thought. Hubby and I have also missed a few days of Love Dare Journal. But those are very simple, too. We can catch up tonite. And speaking of night — I have to start going to bed earlier. Sigh. Rest and sleep. They’re sorta related.

*****************

My Sunday blogs are dedicated to Books, Rest and Health. I guess I should call it a Sabbath post since that’s more in line with what I want to achieve this yr – sabbath. I’m hoping that blogging about my struggles to rest will keep me accountable to actually achieving that rest. Books are a major factor in resting. If I’m reading, then I’m relaxed. And I’m not talking about reading my Google Reader! 😛 I do that EVERYDAY. -__- I mean, reading good books, even e-books. As long as they’re books. Resting can also include napping or sitting quietly. Even reading the Bible or a devotional. And Health is all about how trying to achieve this sabbath will help stave off my anxiety attacks and improve my sleep. Need to get myself healthy. I’m 32 and I want to have healthy babies… 😉

Power Quote

HP Quotes

"By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many."

"I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

"I would assume that you were going to offer me refreshment, but the evidence so far suggests that that would be optimistic to the point of foolishness."
~Albus Dumbledore - best Hogwarts Headmaster period